Andrew, THANK YOU . The one above is my favourite I think. Although it is hard to choose. I like the scary retrieve by Charlie also lol. Sounds like you are having a lot of fun with those pesky cockers. They almost look 'useful' Oh alright then, Izzy in particular is rather pretty isn't she, I admit it (and obviously knows it going by your description of her ).
You know your dogs always look like they're havign the time of their lives in your photos .
The lady wants more photos', here you are then Helen, complete with an update on the training schedule. Andrew
Oh yes very good pics, excellent in fact.
I really do like the one of Spider, the third one down; the composition is very nice, ears, toggle etc and one of the best photographs I’ve seen on here.
Sounds as if spring / summer training is coming on well.
Helen - you asked a bit back about taking pics of black dogs – well that’s how it’s done!
Things are starting to move on with Sally. (10 months old last week). I’ve seen enough from her now to give me the green light to push on more with her training.
I’ve started doing some simple blinds. I do quite a bit of training in a country park. The park has quite a number of mown pathways which are ideal for sending a young dog in a line. I set them up so that as long as she starts heading in the right direction for about ten metres she hopefully be able to see / wind the dummy fairly easily for the rest of the retrieve.
I’m also doing progressively more difficult memory retrieves into corners of fields or small groups of trees etc, often a few in the same area to build her confidence in taking a line.
Last Thursday I took her along to the gundog class that I teach. I had her out for a part of the session, predominantly to get her used to a walk-up type environment. Her heelwork, steadiness and general attention were very pleasing and I am encouraged by her temperament and demeanour when working in company. Even more of a test for her is the fact that I have to organise what’s going on and advise the other handlers as well as focus on her. She marked the couple of retrieves nicely and took a good line to the memory, so I popped her back in the car pleased with her performance.
I still haven’t introduced her to shot in any form yet. That’s on the ‘to-do’ list for the next few weeks, but I’ll wait until I have a willing helper available to fire the shots for me.
On Saturday I decided that it was high time that she had her first retrieves from water. This is quite a bit older than I would usually start water retrieves with a dog. I took Lola as well along to a small pond with a very shallow entry, and small enough to chuck a dummy across. She was a little hesitant at first, but made good progress and she eventually achieved some retrieves from in and then across the small pond.
Considering how poor her delivery was up until a few weeks ago, she delivered the dummy to hand from the water really nicely even from a few yards away from the waters edge. This is pleasing as it demonstrates that the dummy hold has been thoroughly absorbed.
I’m teaching a 1:1 lesson this evening near a back-water of the river Nene. I’ll take Sally along and give her some retrieves from the flowing water afterwards. I’ll also take Lola to give some cross-river retrieves from a long distance from the bank.
The hunting drive is starting to develop. Not exactly ‘hell-for-leather’ yet, but if she doesn’t mark spot-on, she is starting to take in a bit more ground and look more purposeful.
Marking is pretty good so far.
Where a retrieve is relatively straightforward, she is making a nice job of it. Any distractions are doing exactly what it says on the tin, and distracting her! So I’m gradually introducing these but being really careful not to knock her confidence, as I don’t like spinning or other forms of uncertainty or looking for help.
On a more general note, I can’t believe how many people are looking for gundog training lessons this year. I don’t know if it’s a general thing, or just that I am meeting a wider and wider circle of dog owners, but not a week goes by at the moment when I don’t seem to be talking to a number of different people about gundog classes. These are mostly, but not exclusively, newcomers to the sport which has to be encouraging.
Last week’s puppy / beginner session had far more spaniels (both springer and cocker) than labs. I’m not sure if this was just by chance, or if there is general move towards small hairy dogs. There also seems to be quite a number of people looking for one-to-one lessons with pet spaniels that they are really struggling with. (I’m seeing three this week and I don’t advertise or even purposely set out to do them)
All times are GMT Goto page : Previous1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
Page 6 of 6
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum You cannot attach files in this forum You cannot download files in this forum
. The one above is my favourite I think. Although it is hard to choose. I like the scary retrieve by Charlie also lol. Sounds like you are having a lot of fun with those pesky cockers. They almost look 'useful' 
Oh alright then, Izzy in particular is rather pretty isn't she, I admit it (and obviously knows it going by your description of her 
)
